Documentary Films
John Grierson
• The “original actor” and the “original scene”
are best for interpreting the world
• Maintain democracy by engaging citizens
through “exciting” documentary film
Documentary
• A factual film which is dramatic
• Provides an opinion, with a specific message
• “life filmed surreptitiously”
Pre-1900
• Mainly single-shot moments captured on film
• Surgical films of operations and scientific
advances
Early 20th century
• “travelogue” films became very popular
• Romanticized versions of native peoples
• Newsreels were often staged recreations of
events that had already occurred
WWII era
• Propaganda to increase patriotic fervour on all
sides
• Hitler commissions “Triumph of the Will”
• The NFB (set up by Grierson) produced
counter-propaganda films